Bissel is a small village of the West Sahara. It lies next to a l.5-square-kilometer oasis(绿洲), from where three days and nights are generally required to go out of the desert. However, before Ken Levin discovered it in 1926, none of the Bissel villagers had ever walked out of the desert. Reportedly, they were not unwilling to leave this barren land. Many had previously tried but failed, always somehow finding themselves back at the oasis after several days of trying to walk out.
When interviewed by Ken Levin, an expert at the British Royal College of Sciences, the villagers explained that no matter which direction they walked it always brought them back to the village.Why couldn’t the Bissel villagers walk out of the desert? Levin was very puzzled. He had, by himself, managed to walk north from the village and reach the nearest town in three and a half days. He decided to carry out an experiment to solve the mystery. He and a Bissel villager called Argutel, would walk out of the desert together. They prepared enough water for a half-a-month journey and two camels. But this time Ken Levin didn't bring his compass. Levin would follow Argutel.
Ten days later, they had walked for about 500 miles but were still in the desert. On the 11th morning, an oasis came into their view. They were back at Bissel. Levin now understood why the Bissel people couldn’t escape the desert. They had no knowledge of the North Star, which had for centuries provided sailors and other travelers with a point of direction. In the desert, if a person goes forward relying only on their senses, they will not be able to travel in a straight line. Rather they will travel in a very large circle and eventually track back to where they began. Levin explained to Argutel the function of the North Star and said, “As long as you rest in the daytime and walk towards the brightest star at night, you would be able to walk out of the desert.” Argutel did as he was told. Three days later, he came to the edge of the desert.
Now in the West Sahara, Bissel has become a bright pearl, where tens of thousands of tourists come every year. Argutel’s bronze statue stands in the center of the town. On its base are the words: __________________________.
【小题1】Ken Levin asked Argutel to walk to the north in order to ________.
A.prove that people could walk out of the desert see |
B.how far away Bissel was to the edge of the desert |
C.tell people not to walk in circles |
D.show Argutel was a great person |
A.knew Argutel before he came to the village |
B.came to Bissel to do experiments on behalf of his college |
C.became the first man to walk out of the desert from Bissel Village |
D.taught Bissel villagers knowledge of the North Star when he first arrived |
A.Ken Levin didn’t walk south because it would take more days |
B.the use of a compass was necessary to walk out of the desert |
C.tourism in Bissel has been greatly developed and improved |
D.Argutel became the leader of Bissel after his return |
A.A new life starts from the fixed direction. |
B.Where there is a will , there is a way . |
C.A long journey starts with the first step . |
D.Two heads are better than one. |
【小题1】A
【小题2】C
【小题3】C
【小题4】A
解析试题分析:Bissel是位于撒哈拉沙漠中的一个小村子,从村子走出沙漠需要三天三夜的时间,然而在1926年肯.列文发现它之前没有人走出过沙漠,一次次的尝试都失败了。为什么呢?于是肯.列文做了个实验,终于发现原来是当地人不懂得利用北极星辨认方向的缘故,只凭着感觉走的话人们很容易走的是一个大圆圈。
【小题1】A细节理解题。根据上文内容可知在肯.列文来之前没人能走出沙漠,于是He decided to carry out an experiment to solve the mystery.,由此可知他做实验为了证实人们可以走出沙漠,所以A选项正确。
【小题2】C细节理解题。根据第一段中However, before Ken Levin discovered it in 1926, none of the Bissel villagers had ever walked out of the desert.和第二段中 He had, by himself, managed to walk north from the village and reach the nearest town in three and a half days.的讲述可知C选项正确。
【小题3】C细节理解题。根据文章最后一段Bissel has become a bright pearl, where tens of thousands of tourists come every year.可知现在Bissel旅游业发展了,所以答案选C。
【小题4】A主旨大意题。文章讲述了肯.列文通过亲身尝试知道了当地人走不出沙漠的原因是因为他们不懂得利用北极星定位,由此推测当人们知道后就可以走出沙漠了,而且文章最后提到了Bissel现在的兴盛,纵观选项,A项内容能贴切的表述文章内容,所以答案选A。
考点:考查社会知识类短文阅读。
科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
Growers around the world are using new methods to grow grapes to make wine. They use natural and organic methods to control harmful insects and weeds instead of using chemicals. Now, a winery in Canada has adopted a natural way to control its grapevines (葡萄藤).The Featherstone Winery is in southern Ontario. The grapevines, like other plants, need to be cut every year.
Cutting grapevines must be done very carefully. Only a targeted area of leaves is removed from the lower part of the vines to help the grapes grow better. But at the Featherstone Winery, no man or machine does the cutting. Instead, the job is done by 40 little wooly lambs.www.zxxk.com
David Johnson owns the vineyard. He says he learned about using lambs while visiting wineries in New Zealand. The young lambs are perfectly designed to do the job. They eat the grape leaves on the lower parts of the vine. But they are not tall enough to reach the grapes. They only weigh about 22 kilograms, so they do not beat down the soil. And their waste makes good organic fertilizer. In addition, using the lambs costs much less than hiring workers to cut the vines for seven weeks in summer. And when the cutting is done in August, the lambs become tasty dishes.
Mr Johnson says he had a difficult time finding enough lambs to do the job. There are about 50 million lambs in New Zealand. But there are not nearly as many in Ontario. Also, some organic pesticides (杀虫剂) are harmful to lambs. And the lambs must be watched to make sure they do not eat too much of the grapevines.
David Johnson says the lambs help him carry out his environmental ideas about farming. They are lovely and peaceful and he likes having them in his vineyard. People visiting the vineyard also enjoy watching the lambs do their job.
【小题1】Farmers who grow grapes with natural and organic methods _____.
A.don't cut grapevines every year |
B.don't use chemicals to control harmful insects and weeds |
C.don't need to control harmful insects and weeds |
D.don't use organic fertilizer |
A.only have to remove the dead leaves |
B.need to remove a specific area of leaves |
C.shouldn't remove any part of the plants |
D.should let little lambs do the cutting |
A.the future of getting lambs to do the cutting |
B.the worries about using organic pesticides |
C.the ways to get lambs to do the cutting |
D.the problems related to lambs doing the cutting |
A.owns several wineries in Canada |
B.buys lambs from New Zealand |
C.is concerned about protecting the environment |
D.loves keeping lambs instead of farming |
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Researchers at the University of California have carried out the study and found that embarrassment is a good signature of a person to whom you can entrust valuable resources.
Not only are the findings useful for people seeking cooperative and reliable team members and business partners, but they also make for helpful dating advice.“Moderate(适度的) levels of embarrassment are signs of virtue. Our data suggests embarrassment is a good thing, not something you should fight.”said Matthew Feinberg, who led the study.
While the most typical gesture of embarrassment is a downward gaze to one side while partly covering the face, a person who feels shame, as distinguished(区别) from embarrassment, will typically cover the whole face, Feinberg said.
The results were got from a series of experiments. In the first experiment, 60 college students were videotaped describing embarrassing moments, such as making incorrect assumptions(假想) based on appearances. The college students also participated in the “Dictator Game” which is used in economics research to measure altruism(利己主义). For example, each was given 10 raffle tickets(奖券) and asked to keep a share of the tickets and give the reminder(提示物) to a partner.
The findings, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showed that those who showed greater levels of embarrassment tended to give away more of their raffle tickets, indicating(﹦showing) greater generosity.
【小题1】According to the passage, which of the following is thought to be reliable?
A.A person who feels shame. |
B.A person who hides his embarrassment. |
C.A person who shows his embarrassment. |
D.A person who gives away more raffle tickets. |
A.it’s useless to fight our embarrassment |
B.people should try to overcome their embarrassment |
C.embarrassed people are not good at doing business |
D.people who show embarrassment can be good business partners |
A.measure the students’ economic status |
B.test whether a student is generous or not |
C.determine the different levels of embarrassment |
D.record how each student reacts during embarrassing moments |
A.proved to be more generous | B.kept more of the raffle tickets |
C.didn’t care for raffle tickets | D.were less reliable |
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The laws of economics suggest that Wal-Mart, with 5, 200 stores worldwide, influences everything including the price of all kinds of goods.It throws its weight behind environmental responsibility, and the impact could be amazing."One little change in product packaging could save 1, 500 trees," says Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott."If everybody saves 1, 500 trees or 50 barrels of oil, at the end of the day you have made a huge difference."
Scott wants Wal-Mart to do its part too.He has promised to cut the existing greenhouse-gas emissions (排放) over the next few years and promised to construct new stores that are more efficient.He wants Wal-Mart's fleet (车队) of more than 7, 000 trucks to get twice as many miles per gallon by 2015.Factories that show Wal-Mart they're cutting air pollution will get preferential treatment in the supply chain. Wal-Mart says it's working with consumer-product manufacturers to reduce their packaging and will reward them if they do so.
Some people may doubt it is a bid to attract attention from Wal-Mart's controversial labor and health-insurance practices.But it's not just window dressing, because Wal-Mart sees profits in going green.Scott says, "This is a business philosophy, not a social philosophy.We don't go where we don't think there's a great interest in change."
Like Bill Gates, who started his charitable foundation, Scott happens to be promoting Wal-Mart's image at a time when his company's reputation is declining.He acknowledges that he launched the plan partly to shield (保护,庇护) Wal-Mart from bad press about its contribution to global warming." By doing what we're doing today, we avoid the headline risks that are going to come for people who did not do anything," he says."At some point businesses will be held responsible for the actions they take." Meanwhile, should Wal-Mart succeed at shrinking its environmental footprint and lowering prices for green products, both the planet and the company will profit.
【小题1】We can infer from the passage that ______.
A.Lee Scott is Wal-Mart's CEO |
B.there are 5, 200 stores in the world |
C.Wal-Mart has a great influence on the world market |
D.Wal-Mart has more than 7, 000 trucks all over the world |
A.Wal-Mart predicts huge profits in its green activity. |
B.Wal-Mart's green activity is just window dressing. |
C.Wal-Mart aims to solve its health-insurance practices. |
D.Wal-Mart doesn't have any social responsibility at all. |
A.Reduce air pollution in its present stores. |
B.Give favorable treatment to its consumers. |
C.Ask the factories to reduce their packaging. |
D.Demand the fleet of trucks to use more fuel than before. |
A.Provide the background of the green plan. |
B.Stress the purpose of Wal-Mart's green plan. |
C.Present the risk that Wal-Mart is facing nowadays. |
D.Analyze the similarity between Bill Gates and Scott. |
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We produce 500 billion of plastic bags in a year worldwide and they are thrown away polluting oceans, killing wildlife and getting dumped in landfills where they take up to 1000 years to decompose. Researchers have been unsuccessfully looking for a solution.
The 16-year old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Collegiate Institute,
has discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(分解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair, a $10 000 prize, a $20 000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.
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With this goal in mind, he ground plastic bags into a powder and concocted(调制) a solution of household chemicals, yeast(酵母) and tap water to encourage microbes growth. Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for 3 months. Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control. Sure enough, the plastic exposed to the live bacteria was 17% lighter than the control after six weeks.
The inputs are cheap: maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide.
“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have piles of plastic bags falling on top of me. One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags. The answer: not much. So I decided to do something myself.” said Daniel Burd.
【小题1】Daniel Burd won first prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair because________.
A.he found a new kind of microorganism |
B.he contributed much to environmental protection |
C.he found a way to degrade plastics in shorter time |
D.he could encourage microbes growth in an easier way |
A.make the live bacteria work better |
B.test how effective his method was |
C.know which bacteria worked faster |
D.control the temperature in the process |
A.plastics can get hot easily |
B.microbes can produce heat themselves |
C.much carbon dioxide is produced |
D.the temperature can be controlled |
A.his school textbook | B.the failure of researchers |
C.his everyday work | D.the practice of other people |
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Scientists are developing a new kind of machine to take the place of humans. These machines can do jobs in places that are too dangerous for humans. For example, they are being developed to work in nuclear power center, deep under the oceans and in outer space.
John Marrit, a psychologist(心理学家) in Williamsburg Massachusetts, helped develop the new machine. This is how they work. A machine is placed in an area far away from the person who operates it. The person wears special hard hat with television screens and sound equipment. The screens and sound equipment let the person see and hear exactly what the machine is seeing and hearing. Mr. Marrit says this gives the person the feeling of being in the same place as the machine. The idea, he says, is being there without going there. The person uses an electronic control to make the machine move. The machine copies the person’s movements exactly. If the person raises his right arm, the machine raises the right arm, too. This means an expert can do a dangerous job while staying in the safe place. For example, a person can direct the machine to destroy a bomb without going near the bomb himself.
【小题1】The new kind of machine being introduced in the passage is _______.
A.in existence | B.only an idea |
C.being tried out | D.being researched and developed |
A.follows the person’s order |
B.is controlled by a computer |
C.does exactly what the person does |
D.is controlled by a television on the person’s head |
A.the new machine is more difficult to make than a robot |
B.the new machine is more difficult to be controlled |
C.a robot is controlled by man indirectly |
D.a robot can’t be used in places too dangerous or faraway |
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Looking back on China’s road to outer space, people can easily find it has not been very smooth. In the past years, Chinese people have made hard and determined efforts to realize the dream their ancestors had for thousands of years.
After China’s first satellite into the Earth’s orbit in 1970 came four flights of unmanned Shenzhou missions(飞行) from 1999 to 2002. The country carried out its first one-piloted space flight in October, 2003, making China the third country in the world to have independent human spaceflight ability after the Soviet Union and the United States. Then came another breakthrough on October 12, 2005, when Shenzhou 6, China’s second human spaceflight, was launched, with a crew of two astronauts. What’s more, the landmark spacewalk done by Zhai Zhigang, one of the three boarding Shenzhou 7, launched on Sept. 25, 2008, leads the country further in its space exploration.
Meanwhile, China’s moon exploration project, started in 2004, has also been progressing satisfactorily. Fifty years after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first man-made satellite, China’s first circumlunar(绕月的)satellite Chang’e 1 took off on Oct.24, 2007, which became another milestone(里程碑) in China’s space achievements after the above-mentioned manned flights. Chang’e 1 was expected to fulfill four scientific goals, one of which was to probe(勘探)mineral elements on the moon, especially those not existent on Earth. It’s said that the lunar regolith(月壤) is abundant in helium-3, a clean fuel that may support the Earth’s energy demands for more than a century. Nearly 3 years later, Oct. 1, 2010 witnessed the blasting off of Chang’e 2, China’s 2nd unmanned lunar probe, marking another step forward in moon exploration. This time the aim is to test the key techniques of Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4, as a preparation for a soft lunar landing in the future.
With great expectations, people all over the world are looking forward to China’s greater space achievements.
【小题1】Altogether how many astronauts have made successful spaceflight by Shenzhou spaceship by now?
A.4 | B.5 | C.6 | D.7 |
A.China sent its first satellite into the Moon’s orbit in 1970. |
B.China is the third country in Asia to make human spaceflight. |
C.China has blasted off 4 unmanned lunar probes. |
D.The launching of Chang’e 1 became the third milestone in China’s space achievements. |
A.China’s road to outer space has not been very smooth for a long time |
B.the lunar regolith is believed to be rich in a clean fuel called helium-3 |
C.China’s lunar exploration project was started in 2004 and completed in 2007 |
D.China’s scientists are researching into techniques for soft lunar landing |
A.Ancient Chinese’s Dream | B.China’s Major Space Achievements |
C.China’s Moon Exploration | D.The World’s Great Expectations |
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科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
Most animals have little connection with animals of a different kind, unless they hunt them for food. Sometimes, however, two kinds of animals come together in a partnership(伙伴关系) which does good to both of them. You may have noticed some birds sitting on the back of sheep. This is not because they want a ride, but because they find easy food in the parasites(寄生虫)on sheep. The sheep allow the birds to do so because they remove the cause of discomfort. So although they can manage without each other, they do better together.
Sometimes an animal has a plant partner. The relationship develops until the two partners cannot do without each other. This is so in the corals(珊瑚)of the sea. In their skins they have tiny plants which act as “dustman”, taking some of the waste products from the coral and giving in return oxygen which the animal needs to breathe. If the plants are killed, or are even prevented from light so that they cannot live normally, the corals will die.
【小题1】Some birds like to sit on a sheep because _________.
A.they can eat its parasites |
B.they consider the sheep as their shelter |
C.they enjoy traveling with the sheep |
D.they find the position most comfortable |
A.birds and parasites | B.sheep, birds and parasites |
C.parasites and sheep | D.birds and sheep |
A.comfort | B.light | C.oxygen | D.food |
A.Some plants depend on each other for food. |
B.Some animals and plants develop their relationship easily. |
C.Some animals and plants depend on each other for existence. |
D.Some animals live better together. |
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